Introductions and Discoveries

I made it through my first week of classes! It was mostly good, although there were some awkward/uncomfortable moments mixed in. On Tuesday I was all set to give my powerpoint about myself and wouldn’t you know, the school’s computers were the 2003 version and my computer couldn’t save a version any older than 2009 so yeah that was a fail. Thank goodness I had the foresight to bring some photos of myself, family, and pets and I passed those around for the kids to view and ask me questions about. The questions they asked ranged from favorite foods and sports to whether I had a boyfriend, was married or had kids. Big families aren’t very common in Spain so there were many exclamations of surprise and excitement when they found out how many siblings I have. I will be working with about 200 kids, so in a week I only have two repeat classes and the rest are all different, which meant this week was introductions in every class. Answering questions about myself over and over and over…

Wednesday and Thursday were more of a success because I changed my powerpoint to a pdf file and that worked on the school computers so I could actually show those classes more about myself and things I liked etc. The kids were particularly excited when I showed them a picture of a tornado in a slide about Nebraska. They asked if tornados really existed, whether people would fly in one, and whether basements have oxygen. That last question was strange, but basements aren’t common in Spain, so going below ground is kinda weird for them. The second year class (age seven) drew pictures about things I presented on and their interpretations were really funny and cute. A lot of them drew my house, some drew me, or a cat and a bunch of them wrote I love you on their pictures which was kinda precious. That sort of elevated them to my favorite class at the moment. Oh and right after I came in to the class, Loli, one of the students, came up to me and gave me a picture of the Tin Man from Wizard of Oz that she had colored! She didn’t have a clue that I was a big fan of the movie/books. Apparently they had studied the Wizard of Oz last year so that’s kinda cool. 

Loli's picture

Okay, well enough on school for one blog post. I made chocolate chip cookies! They were a bit of a failure. In terms of U.S. chocolate chip cookie expectations, that is. My French flatmate said they were great, but myself and my American flatmate were in agreement that they didn’t quite measure up to our accustomed standards. Just to clarify in case anyone is concerned, I will be eating them, have no doubt of that! The chocolate is their redeeming quality so they won’t be wasted. But the texture was not quite normal and the flavor was a bit off. Everything tastes different in Spain that’s all there is to it. Sometimes it’s an improvement, sometimes it’s not so great. Like the milk. The milk here is definitely a downgrade from the U.S. as is the beef. But Spanish bread wins every time and they know how to make tortilla de patata to die for here. 

My cookies. They looked better than they tasted.

So on Saturday, I went on an outing to Puerto de Mazarrón which is a town/city right on the Mediterranean. It has tons of beaches! I believe I saw five in the course of the morning/afternoon I spent there. I discovered it is a very popular destination for British to have vacation homes. I probably saw just as many retired-aged British people as Spaniards and heard just as much if not more English than Spanish. I picked a cafe to eat lunch at and after I’d placed my order (in Spanish) the British invasion happened and I found every table around me quickly occupied with bearers of that quite distinct accent. Seriously if I closed my eyes I could swear I was listening to Angela Lansbury and Michael Caine. The poor waitress was struggling with getting orders down in English and in the course of things ended up using English when she returned to my table because everyone around me didn’t speak Spanish so she forgot I actually did, much to my disappointment. At least the British accents were enjoyable to listen to, so that sort of made up for my losing out on a Spanish real-life application experience.

With cute little white houses on the beach, who wouldn't want a vacation home here?

Overall from my day at the beach, my favorite spot was this lookout called Cabezo del Gavilán that I happened upon. It took a good amount of walking to get to that beach and I didn’t realize when I headed in that direction that there was such a lookout, but thank goodness I did because the views were breathtaking. It definitely was worth seeing and I went picture crazy a little bit there. Another memorable part of my excursion was actually at the very end when I was waiting for the bus to head back to Murcia. This little old Spanish man came and sat down next to me and started up a conversation. I learned that he is originally from Castilla-La Mancha, he now lives in Murcia and his favorite region is Madrid because of the women. He asked if I was married and when I replied no he said then that’s why I’d come to Spain, to find a boyfriend. Yeaahh, that’s the reason. It was an entertaining way to pass the time and also good Spanish practice. 

Doesn't get any more gorgeous than this.

Well I think that about sums up this past week. Oh and I started my second job (Nanny Speaking) and so far I think it went very well. I spent an hour playing with (but also teaching) two adorable little Spanish girls and they did very well with English. Almost too well, because by the time the hour was up I was completely out of all my activities I’d planned and all the extras as well. Now I know to come more prepared for next time. Okay, this is me saying over and out until (hopefully) next week.